Hi group:
I am not sure how interested anyone will be in this, but I am in the
process of trying to turn a long time hobby into a retirement business.
You can see the results on my new web site http://atensundials.com

Any suggestions or questions are welcome, reply here or thru the web
site e-mail links.

TIA
Dave G.

"Dave Gee" wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi group:
I am not sure how interested anyone will be in this, but I am in the
process of trying to turn a long time hobby into a retirement business.
You can see the results on my new web site http://atensundials.com

Any suggestions or questions are welcome, reply here or thru the web
site e-mail links.

TIA
Dave G.


They are really beautiful, Don. I wish you the best in the business.
(Sadly, beyond my means right now.)

One observation: The links on your website are difficult to read on my
monitor, and would benefit from a colour change.

Lovely machines! (I *do* want one!)

--
Jeff R.
(in Sydney)

Thanks Jeff: Could you be more specific about the links? My web
skills are not the best, and am not sure which pages you mean, also,
what browser are you using?

TIA
Dave G.

"Dave Gee" wrote in message
oups.com...
Thanks Jeff: Could you be more specific about the links? My web
skills are not the best, and am not sure which pages you mean, also,
what browser are you using?

TIA
Dave G.


Sure Dave.

I'm using both IE 6 and Firefox 1.0.
My monitor is a Samsung 17" LCD.

My problem:
(and its a minor one)
You appear to have set the color for links to #ffffff (white), which doesn't
show up well against the tan background.

If you just alter (in the BODY statement) the parameter link=#ffffff to
link=#(some other colour - say A089D9 ( a nice pastel-ish purple) then the
links will appear as that colour - more contrasty than white on tan.

Postscript:
I'm having a hard time locating the statement in your code. When I look at
your page code I can't find the "link=" parameter, nor a CSS which controls
it. My Zonealarm is doing funny things too. When I copy your page to my
local disk, the statement pops right up, but I still can't see it on your
live code, even if I switch Zonealarm off. :-(

Question...
What colour do you see the link text as?
I see white.

Maybe the clock applet is doing something funny... (?)

Look - the problem is a minor one and perhaps not one to worry about
('though its bugging me).

I still *love* those sundials....

--
Jeff R.

On 7 May 2005 00:21:55 -0700, the inscrutable "Dave Gee"
spake:

Thanks Jeff: Could you be more specific about the links? My web
skills are not the best, and am not sure which pages you mean, also,
what browser are you using?

I agree, Dave. White text link on a beige background is hard to read.
Suggestion: swap out the first basic body callout with this:
body bgcolor="#d3c89b" text="#000000" link="#0000ff" vlink="#000080"
alink="#ff0000"

Nice machines. How's business? the 3x price difference, are the
Aten II cast vs. machined? Are you machining these by hand or CNC?

Best of luck to you!


------------------------------------------------------
No matter how hard you try, you cannot baptize a cat.
----------------------------
http://www.diversify.com Comprehensive Website Development
---------------------------------------------------

LJ wrote:
Nice machines. How's business? the 3x price difference, are the
Aten II cast vs. machined? Are you machining these by hand or CNC?

Thanks for the tips on the web site, I am very new at working with
HTML.
As to the Aten II pricing, it is not cast but of built up construction,
from machined parts (see the manufacturing link, last graphic, if you
can find it, heh). It is about twice the size of the other Aten models
and takes about 2 1/2 times the material, machine time is greater than
the other models and the much greater assembly time accounts for the
price differential. The main competitors in this niche market are the
Precision sundials Renaissance: $8,000, the Gunning sundials
Heliochronometer 2300 British pounds (not sure about the exchange rate
at this moment, but roughly 2 to 1) and the Schmoyer Sunquest: $3,200
in Statuary Silicon Bronze. The Schmoyer is available as a kit, so some
here may be interested. Here is a page on machining them by Tony Moss
in England that may interest some.
http://sundials.org/links/local/schm...ony1/tony1.htm

Again, thanks to all for the html tips, I plan to do some editing this
afternoon and get a more legible page up soon.
Dave G.

On 7 May 2005 09:48:28 -0700, the inscrutable "Dave Gee"
spake:

LJ wrote:
Nice machines. How's business? the 3x price difference, are the
Aten II cast vs. machined? Are you machining these by hand or CNC?

Thanks for the tips on the web site, I am very new at working with
HTML.

You're very welcome.


As to the Aten II pricing, it is not cast but of built up construction,
from machined parts (see the manufacturing link, last graphic, if you
can find it, heh). It is about twice the size of the other Aten models
and takes about 2 1/2 times the material, machine time is greater than
the other models and the much greater assembly time accounts for the
price differential. The main competitors in this niche market are the
Precision sundials Renaissance: $8,000, the Gunning sundials
Heliochronometer 2300 British pounds (not sure about the exchange rate
at this moment, but roughly 2 to 1) and the Schmoyer Sunquest: $3,200
in Statuary Silicon Bronze. The Schmoyer is available as a kit, so some
here may be interested. Here is a page on machining them by Tony Moss
in England that may interest some.
http://sundials.org/links/local/schm...ony1/tony1.htm

Now to convince buyers that yours are as precise for less money...
Again, g'luck!


Again, thanks to all for the html tips, I plan to do some editing this
afternoon and get a more legible page up soon.

Excellent idea.


------------------------------------------------------
No matter how hard you try, you cannot baptize a cat.
----------------------------
http://www.diversify.com Comprehensive Website Development
---------------------------------------------------

Links look ok to me (unless they have been changed)
Nice work - far to nice to leave outside in the weather...

Nice work on the sundials! Wonder if I could convince my wife to get one??

My $.025 (inflation adjsutment) I found the text to be a bit too techy
to appeal to the gardener type that was looking for some useful but
still ornamental object in the garden. And I suspect that the market
for the real time worshiper to be pretty thin. You need to figure out
who you are trying to speak to and adjust your prose to match.

As someone else mentioned, why the difference in prices? Ans: one is
Stainless and will last longer without discoloration. And the brass one
will go antique fairly fast. You need to bring that out.

Cheers.

Dave Gee wrote:
Hi group:
I am not sure how interested anyone will be in this, but I am in the
process of trying to turn a long time hobby into a retirement business.
You can see the results on my new web site http://atensundials.com

Any suggestions or questions are welcome, reply here or thru the web
site e-mail links.

TIA
Dave G.

Jeff R wrote:

I'm using both IE 6 and Firefox 1.0. ...
You appear to have set the color for links to #ffffff (white), which doesn't
show up well against the tan background. ...

Hmmm ... I'm using Firefox 1.0.3 and I get tan-ish (not white) text on
black background. I wonder if we have some options set differently. Bob

Bob Engelhardt wrote:

Jeff R wrote:


I'm using both IE 6 and Firefox 1.0. ...
You appear to have set the color for links to #ffffff (white), which
doesn't
show up well against the tan background. ...


Hmmm ... I'm using Firefox 1.0.3 and I get tan-ish (not white) text on
black background. I wonder if we have some options set differently. Bob


I also see tan text on black background, with Netscape 7.2

Fred

On Sat, 07 May 2005 18:01:16 -0400, the inscrutable Bob Engelhardt
spake:

Jeff R wrote:

I'm using both IE 6 and Firefox 1.0. ...
You appear to have set the color for links to #ffffff (white), which doesn't
show up well against the tan background. ...

Hmmm ... I'm using Firefox 1.0.3 and I get tan-ish (not white) text on
black background. I wonder if we have some options set differently. Bob

Check your monitor brightness settings. If you have them set too low,
things get yellow. If you have Adobe Photoshop, their Gamma utility
will allow you to adjust the color temperature of the monitor, also
brightening whites.

The code on his page calls (or called) for white on black for the
right panel.


------------------------------------------------------
No matter how hard you try, you cannot baptize a cat.
----------------------------
http://www.diversify.com Comprehensive Website Development
---------------------------------------------------

In article ,
ff wrote:
Bob Engelhardt wrote:

Jeff R wrote:


I'm using both IE 6 and Firefox 1.0. ...
You appear to have set the color for links to #ffffff (white), which
doesn't
show up well against the tan background. ...


Hmmm ... I'm using Firefox 1.0.3 and I get tan-ish (not white) text on
black background. I wonder if we have some options set differently. Bob


I also see tan text on black background, with Netscape 7.2

Is it possible that both of you have the foreground and
background colors pre-selected in the preferences for whatever reason?
I saw a very light color text for the links against a tan background,
before the change. (Using Mozilla.) The change gave it a sort of purple
link color, which was a much better contrast to the light tan
background.

Note, in the past, I've had trouble with people seeing on my web
site different colors from what I saw. The one who was willing to work
through it with me turned out to see what I saw when he used Netscape
instead of Internet Explorer. And as another interesting factor, when
he changed the "number of colors" presented in his screen setup
(Windows), he saw sort of what I saw even using IE if he set to the
minimum number of colors, and saw exactly what I saw with the maximum
number of colors. It was only with the middle selection 64K colors,
IIRC) that he saw vastly different from what I saw.

I could not perform the tests locally, because the Sun
workstation showed the same with any selection of colors (either 8-bit
or 24-bit).

I should have asked him what his graphics card was -- on the
theory that either the card or the driver for it could have contributed
to the problems.

Enjoy,
DoN.
--
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